China is exerting ‘enormous pressure’ on Pacific island nations, Scott Morrison says

Morrison dodges questions on whether Australia knew of Solomon Islands-China pact amid ministers' conflicting accounts

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Scott Morrison says China is exerting enormous pressure" on Pacific island countries, as the Australian prime minister fends off questions about whether his government was caught off-guard by the security deal with Solomon Islands.

Morrison said it was not just as easy as picking up the phone or sending a foreign minister", after Labor characterised the signing of the deal as the biggest Australian foreign policy failure in the Pacific since the second world war.